I may have found the farm. It wasn't under my grandfathers name of James Henry Miller it was under my great grandfathers name of James Evans. There were about three sections or pieces of land listed all contiguous. I vaguely remember that Grandpa evans split the land up to the kids. He was a small man with white beard and mustache and aleways wore an old suit. He had a nickname of Frenchie and had a bad temper (I never saw it) He had worked for the railroad in Missouri and at one time worked at a switch house. They say he carried a little .41 caliber brass derringer in his vest pocket in a tobacco pouch. My girl cousin (a few months younger than me) would go out on the front porch of the farm house where grandpa Evans would spend many hours sitting and watching the cars pass up on the hill on the road between Bryant and Ava. When he saw us he would gather us up into his lap, one on each leg and tell us mesmerizing stories. Wish I could remember some of them but they were very happy days for us kids. When my dad was little grandpa Evans taught him an old Cherokee song and dad sang it to me but he didn't know its meaning. Lots of questions but no answers available anymore. One vivid memorie I have is, we were going somewhere, maybe Bryant and we, my mother and dad and I went across the creek down to the barn where dad hitched up the horses to the open wagon. One of the horses was a new one they had just traded for and it was skittish. When dad climbed up into the seat it lit out and the wagon and horses went skidding around the barn. Mom heard it coming toward us and yelled and slammed me flat up against the barn. I saw dad with one leg hanging down on the barn side asd the horses came careening around the corner of the barn toward us and his leg got caught between the corner of the barn and the wagon and scraped it up pretty badly. He got them halted and we went to our log cabin where mom fixed up his leg. We didn't go anywhere that day. Another time I remember was dad hoisting me up on his arm lighting the prince Albert in his pipe (sure loved that smell) picked up his axe and went up on the side of the hill (I could look down the hill and see a pretty little pond). He sat me on the ground and began cutting wood rails and such. And maybe firewood. The trees were not big but it must have been fall because the leaves were all yellow and other colors. Still cherish a lot of those memories of so long ago. I am 70 now. Dad and mom passed away in 2006, he 90 and mom 82. Moms folks came from Springfield wher we spent much time later on after grandpa Miller passed away. Paul

We are pursueing an unusual route. We have what was a somewhat grandish 1882 home that is a mixture of Second Empire and Eastlake. Typical for the time, the back rooms (including the kitchen) were not finished to anywhere near the standard of the front (public) rooms. All the trim, moldings, floorings, hardware etc are/were several grades lower. Trying to recreate such a kitchen would seem fun for a museum, but not practical for the 21st century. And trying to create a muddle left us uninspired. Then we asked ourselves this question: What if, in 1882, they valued and utilized their kitchens as we do today? What if the kitchen was meant to be public and just as grand as the rest of the house? What would it have looked like? That question now forms our basis for design. We found the drawing below for a great ceiling and were able to order a replica, which we finally got installed about a month ago (lots of work!). We will do the floor in the Victorian style tiles from the Tile-Source. This week my wife is applying Venetian Plaster to the walls from Vasariplaster in BM August Morning, so that covers the large surfaces. The cabinets I am building and designing myself (thank God for Sketchup!), and they will be highly ornamental in the original Aesthetic Movement style, with no toe kicks and inset doors, ect. Crown Point has been an inspiration, but we are taking the design a lot further than they do in really trying to recreate period furniture/cabinet design. The idea is that upon viewing a person might reasonably think the cabinets are original to the house, with the exception that such cabinets were not built in kitchens at the time. It's all a bit risky, but it is exciting and we have our fingers crossed! Here is a link that might be useful: Tile Source

I avoid them but also keep an eye out for new, better products. I am going with: white (and black) appliances - not trendy a freestanding garbage can - not trendy chrome instead of nickel or specifically, polished nickel or ORB - not trendy slab front cabinets with 1940s hardware - not trendy small tiles in my kitchen floor and def not wood - not trendy 1930s-40s lighting instead of hi hats - not trendy 1940 Kohler sink with built in sideboard, not stainless, copper, farm sink, etc... - not trendy microwave sitting on a shelf - not trendy skylights - no longer trendy counters will be all a dark gray/black/white marble, same on island and perimeters - not trendy no glazing, antiquing, distressing etc... for the cabinets - not trendy linoleum in our den extension - def not trendy OTOH... will have open shelves over my whole sink area - trendy pendant lights over my island (whole phrase is trendy) open floor plan - trendy chimney hood over the island - trendy reeded glass in the glass cabinets over peninsula - semi-trendy separate fridge and freezer - trendy, but they will be white, so it is a wash, lol mostly drawers in cabinets - trendy I think the bottom line is to get what you enjoy and is functional. I avoid trends if it is not going to spite my face.... If a trend is worthy, then I consider it. I think it is best if you do the kitchen so that it does not scream the year you did it in. I'd rather someone come in and not know for sure it is a new kitchen (unless they have been in my house before and seen my ugly small one, lol). I'd like it to fit in with my house and be timeless. When I choose clothing (as in decorating), I avoid trends for the main stuff but will get an accessory or 2 that is along a trend if it looks good on me and I like it. I would never want to look like a sheep that is following what every a,b,c & d list celebrity is doing! hth

Totally agree about wood, and why I closed with masonry being more vulnerable. Virgils point probably has to do with poor terminology or not enough explanation on my part. Sorry if I've confused and will do best to explain what I meant. Hopefully you could tell my reluctant drystack comment was designed for an escape hatch but I'm not yet ready to climb off the limb quite yet. Like so many things here, it depends on details. It's the veneer application that's in doubt and would love a link on any relative research. It's a tough thing to study with so many variables. The only thing I could find with a quick search was a study of full scale dry stack blocks that concludes with: "The earthquake and harmonic base motion energies were dissipated through inter-brick friction, and in some cases by bricks cracking and crushing. The fact that the bricks were dry-stacked allowed them to move and hence dissipate energy." This was not a veneer but suggests how drystack can perform better than monolithic mortar construction. Outside of veneers, I believe it's widely accepted that drystack walls perform better in earthquakes. The oldest standing structures on earth are dry stacked stone, among the most impressive craftsmanship in Peru and Bolivia, an area known for extreme seismic activity. A good mason friend of mine, turned me onto proper walling as he received his certifications from the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain and did further training in France. A picture here of one of his "dry stacked style" walls, but listed by him in the mortared work of his website. It uses mortar and clips to tie to whatever kind of wall is behind it. Here is a picture of an interior ashlar wall with visible mortared joints I had him do for one of our projects: At the time, he tried to talk me into more of a drystack style, not for earthquakes but because the black regency stone required more work and waste to square up. If both walls were subjected to the same earthquake, I think the tighter fitting drystack style would fare better. Assuming both walls had cracking, the one with visible mortar joints would be more obvious. Earthquakes aside, mortar tends to be the weak link. Stone or brick work with no visible mortar will never need to be repointed. Mortar is highly variable and I don't like the many ways that craftsman can screw it up. Commonly available masonry sand is designed to be easy to work with at the expense of longevity. Studying old mortars that are still functional, one will find sharper aggregate varying in size. Got to hand it to Matt Risinger, the man knows when to put out a timely youtube video. Check out his just posted video on a brand new, leaking masonry wall. Things I would highlight relating back to my earlier posts are that rain-soaked masonry can drive moisture to the interior without an actual leak, windows/doors are the major water source and these problems may not become obvious for another 10-20 years. That's a very high-end, presumably architect designed home to be having all that hidden water leakage. Original builder is mostly to blame but I suspect as-built details were not far from plan.